I’ve been noodling on this question the past few days. Here’s why …
Way back in the 1970s, I was a college student — and an activist. I protested against the war, agitated against nuclear weapons, supported the local women’s center, counseled draftees about conscientious objection.
With the confidence of youth, I knew I could — we could — change the world. (And we did. It’s easy to forget how deeply society changed during those years.)
The clock ticked. Reagan took office. I went to law school. Reagan was re-elected. I took a job with a big law firm. And somewhere along the way, my progressive, idealistic spark faded.
It took years — decades, in fact — to light it up again. For me, the key was learning to see successes where others are seeing failure. To become firmly grounded in hope and optimism. (You can read all about that in The 2010 Manifesto. PDF)
So when I came across Karoli’s “Happy 4th! Declare independence from negative nabobs’ tyranny” I stopped to cheer.
“I prefer success, and especially hope,” she wrote.
If hope is kept at the forefront — yes, HOPE — we will make opportunities to perfect and refine the work in progress.
Hope pushed our founding fathers to sign their names to a Declaration of Independence. This country was founded on hope and optimism, not despair and criticism.
I added a brief comment of applause, to which another reader, Matt Keefe, replied:
For a young and (sadly) already jaded progressive like me this article and your comments are a breath of fresh air. My generation seems to be pretty evenly split between anti-government nutjobs and “by default” laissez-faire hipsters. Thanks for giving me some hope that there are more genuine and devoted liberals out there.
Ah, the memories of my own youthful disillusionment.
That same day, I happened on two other pieces that echoed this theme. The first was Pam Slim’s “Note to younger self: you were right”
Young entrepreneurs, if I could whisper advice back at myself when I was your age, I would say “Don’t get jaded. People will make everything out to be terribly complicated and heavy, but that is only one way of looking at things. You don’t have to change the whole world, just one tiny corner of it.” … Don’t get jaded.
The second was Hildy Gottlieb encouraging young social change agents to explore and experiment.
And I got to thinking about what more I might do to create a culture that encourages progressively-minded young people to take an active role in public life. How might I nudge at least a few of them away from becoming jaded and disillusioned … as I was years ago, as so many are today?
Well, this blog is part of my answer, for folks of all ages — and it may be that the answer lies in getting all of us to feel more inspired and powerful.
I’m curious to hear from others who are thinking about this.
I have twice had the experience recently of talking to people half my age about how if you just keep giving – yourself, your time, your energy, your optimism – you’ll be happier and the world will roll along more merrily. And hearing from one of them, “I didn’t know you could say that out loud,” and from the other, “Whoa! I never heard anyone talk about this in real life.”
What? Is there a way in which we’ve lost the thread of believing we can make a difference, so that no-one talks this way “out loud” unless they have a microphone in hand? Is talking about effecting change and giving no longer part of ordinary discourse, the way it was in the 70′s?
So maybe we need to be optimistic, inspiring, and encouraging in normal conversation. Maybe it needs to be so ordinary that people will just expect to hear it and discuss it in an everyday way.
Alexandra, thank you! I checked my email “just one more time” before going to bed and saw this. What a lovely way to close out the day.
It is surprising how little “optimistic, inspiring, and encouraging” talk goes on in ordinary conversation, at least for most folks. Making that kind of talk ordinary again, making it the expected norm … that’s the ticket.
Ah, now I’ll hit the hay. Very glad to have made your acquaintance, Alexandra.
Wow. You said it Pam.
Every day I get email (and direct mail) from the many progressive causes I’ve supported over the years. The ACLU, moveon.org, Emily’s List, Change.org, etc. I see them doing the *right* things in terms of frequency of communication, social media, their web sites, etc. and yet, I am not inspired. Their words lack hope. There is no vision.
Who pushed the Right’s agenda better than that *great communicator* Ronald Reagan? Where we are today in terms of our economy, in terms of the Right-wing bigotry, in terms of the corporate take-over of our media and our government, owes a huge debt of gratitude to Reagan.
What lessons can we take away from his leadership?
Yep, got one of those emails just this morning. No hope, no vision, just a list of complaints. Hmm.
And funny you should mention Reagan …
We tell a story about Reagan in the coming-real-soon-now book I’ve coauthored with Jim Lord (What Kind of World Do You Want?). I hesitated to use the story, given how we and “our kind of folks” feel about Reagan’s legacy. But he was indeed an effective communicator and there’s a lot to learn from him.
So the story stayed in. It will aggravate some folks …